The Market of Sustainable Food
EcoShelves' problems and possibilities
SWOT Analysis
In this section, we identify the internal and external factors that might have an effect on EcoShelves’ future performance. We start by defining the key strengths of the company, along with its key weaknesses to identify critical areas that need to be considered and improved if possible in order to make the business more competitive. Then, we analyze the potential growth of our business by looking at EcoShelves’ opportunities, but also some threats that the company might face.
Technology and food: a problem of perception
One of the biggest threats that EcoShelves faces is regarding people’s perception of sustainable food and the uses of technology in food production. Some people imagine that the solution for creating sustainable food for the future relies in the uses of technology and others imagine that the solution is going back to nature and to fields. This situation could be a problem for EcoShelves because our survey reveals that most durable food consumers would rather go back to a more “natural process” to make food.
During the survey, only 8.6% of the people that were interviewed said they saw the future of food production with the uses of high-tech, while a staggering 48.2% said they would rather go back to natural processes. The remaining people said they either had no particular opinion or that they could see the both being used together.
But, when asked this question, most of the people that answered “a return to nature” were quiet explicit and explained their skepticism towards technology in food production.
This fear of buyer for the “non-natural” methods of food production has already been seen for genetically modified food these past few years. This threat will have to be completely acknowledged when finding the best way to communicate to consumers.
“I’m a chemist, so I would like to see technology in the future of food, but it depends on in whose hands?” (A participant).
This threat will have to be completely acknowledged when finding the best way to communicate to consumers.
The impact of not being labeled “organic”
One of EcoShelves weaknesses relies in the fact that, since our production process is based on synthetic nutrients, we do not have access to the “organic” label, as most of the fruits and vegetables that are produced in a sustainable way and without pesticides do. This label guaranties the quality of the product as well as its eco-friendly production, and without it, some of EcoShelves potential consumers might be discouraged from buying the products.
Our survey results show that, when asked the question “Would you buy a product that has the same characteristics than the ones of an organic product, but that doesn’t have the organic label ?”, the majority of people (66.2%) answered that it wouldn’t affect their buying choices, but 33.8% still answered that they would be less willing to buy a product without the label. A group of people initially said that the label mattered, but then changed their minds after thinking about small local producers that did not want to pay for the label, or for products sold on local markets, where the label isn’t always there.
The importance of the organic label thus depends on the location where the fruits and vegetables are bought: whether it is in a supermarket or in a small urban farm changes people’s certainty of their product actually being organic. This weakness must also be taken into account when communicating the organic properties of our products to potential consumers, and especially to those who attach importance to the organic label.
